Hello all! Here's a quick little one-shot I wrote a few months ago! Enjoy!
Princess Bubblegum sat at her desk sorting the constantly growing pile of paperwork into two separate stacks: to be dealt with now, and to be dealt with later. Glancing briefly at her cookie-shaped clock hanging on the wall, she realized with another heavy sigh that it was deep into the night and she still had a day's worth of paperwork to finish and organize.
After signing her name neatly at the bottom of another ordinance, a quiet tapping at her window disrupted her thoughts. She lifted her head and pushed a lock of pink hair out of her eyes to examine the window. There was nothing unusual about the window except the eerie sillhouette of a tree branch, twisting and tapping against the glass in the wind.
Princess Bubblegum returned to her work and ignored the tapping. After all, there was plenty of work to get done before sunrise, and sleep was beginning to pull at her tired eyes.
Just as she had gathered her determination to finish her work, a louder thump against the window startled her. She had jumped to her feet with surprise and crouched behind her office chair, as if the spinning seat would protect her from the unknown attacker.
The window appeared empty, but Princess Bubblegum knew for a fact that what she had heard had not originated from the tree branch. After a long silence, the princess slowly stood up and took an uneasy breath.
"It's just my imagination." She assured herself, taking a seat and rolling her chair back to her desk.
"What's your imagination?"
The voice behind Princess Bubblegum's ear had scared her so badly that she let out a terrified howl and threw herself forward, sliding over the desk and crashing loudly onto the floor among loose pages and large books.
"My Glob, Bonnibel! You'd think you just saw a monster!" Marceline giggled and floated over to the other side of the desk, leaning down to extend a hand to the princess.
Once she was over the initial fear, Bonnibel clenched her tiny fists and pushed Marceline's hand away.
"Marceline! Look what you've done!" Bonnibel cried with tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
"Sorry, Princess." The vampire stuck her lower lip out in a sincere pout but slipped her hands beneath Bonnibel's underarms and helped her to her feet. "It's just some crumpled paper. If it means so much, I can get you some more…"
"Just some crumpled paper?" Bonnibel shrieked, whipping around to face the pale-skinned girl. "This is very important paperwork, Marceline! It will take me hours to fix this mess!" She bent down and began picking up papers, smoothing them out angrily against the carpet. Marceline watched apprehensively and slowly leaned down to help the princess, although her knees still floated a foot above the air. She had never seen the candy princess look so frustrated.
Without a second thought, Marceline grabbed the petite hand of the princess and pulled her into the air, gliding swiftly out the window and up to the roof of the candy fortress. The pink princess was light as a feather.
"Where are you taking me?" Bonnibel demanded with a hint of fear in her voice. The vampire gently set her on the roof and floated down to perch next to her.
"You sound like you need a break." Marceline insisted.
"I have very important work to do." Bonnibel mumbled, brushing the pale hand away from her own. "Now that you've made a mess of my desk, it's going to take twice as long. Thank you, Marceline."
"You always have work to do." The pointed teeth in the girl's mouth glistened in the moonlight. "But you never have any time for me. For us." Marceline touched the princess' hand and this time Bonnibel did not yank away.
"I'm sorry," Bonnibel off into the starry sky. "But my kingdom comes first, you know that."
Marceline frowned and let her hand slip away.
"All you do is work." She muttered under her breath. "I'm Queen of the Nightosphere and I don't waste any of my time filling out paperwork."
"Perhaps that is why the Nightosphere is a rampant playground of monsters and mayhem? You don't just neglect your kingdom, Marceline. You downright ignore it… and to be quite fair, you couldn't waste any of your time. You're immortal." Princess Bubblegum's eyes widened as if she had blurted out words without realizing what she was saying. "I'm sorry, that was so rude of me."
"So what?" Marceline scrunched up her brow, floating a few feet higher in the air. "You think just because I don't spend every minute of every day slaving over a few pieces of sugar-coated candy that I don't know how to run a kingdom?" The vampire looked irritated. "You're the one who said you wanted to be closer, Bonnie. You're not doing a very good job at it."
Princess Bubblegum huffed and crossed her arms.
"You're being unfair." She murmured.
"No, I'm being reasonable. Your mess of petitions and orders can wait until sunrise. The moon is up and I want to spend tonight with you." Marceline's expression softened and she lowered herself down next to Bonnibel once more, snaking her blueish arm around the princess' shoulder. "Please?"
Bonnibel stared into Marceline's dark eyes and her lips curved into a smile.
"Oh, fine."
"Yes!" Marceline grabbed Bonnibel's hand and pulled her into the air again. "Let's go back to my place and watch a scary movie. All this candy is giving me a stomachache just floating here. Oh! You can hear the new song I wrote!"
As Marceline ranted on about their late-night plans and flew through the crisp night air of the Candy Kingdom, Bonnibel smiled. Marceline was right. Her kingdom could wait.